Hilton Hotels' corporate logo.

Hilton Worldwide is interested not only in putting its Doubletree by Hilton name on the now-city-owned Five Seasons Hotel, but also in managing the hotel and the U.S. Cellular Center arena attached to it, both now under renovation, and the city’s new convention center going up next door, city officials said Friday.

Mayor Ron Corbett and City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said the City Council will vote at its meeting Tuesday to direct Pomeranz to hammer out a management agreement with Hilton for what will be three interconnected city facilities.

“They want this to be a Doubletree by Hilton from every indication I’ve had and they want to manage it as well,” Pomeranz said.

He said the city received five management proposals in its request for proposal, and he said the Hilton one stood out.

Another management company would need to pay Hilton an estimated $500,000 for use of the Doubletree by Hilton hotel flag, but in its proposal, Hilton has agreed to waive the fee, the city manager said.

Pomeranz said the Hilton proposal for the Cedar Rapids hotel and Convention Complex — which is the name for the arena and new convention center — would be similar to an arrangement that Hilton has in Omaha and similar to the Marriott’s arrangement in Coralville.

The details of a formal agreement between the city and Hilton for both management services and the Hilton name still must be worked out, he said.

“We’re pleased that Hilton doesn’t just want to hang its name on the facility, but it wants to manage the whole facility as well,” Pomeranz said.

Corbett on Friday compared what he called Hilton’s commitment to Cedar Rapids to the announcement on Thursday that two existing businesses — Intermec and Raining Rose — and a newcomer — AgSugar International — had plans to construct new buildings in the city with a combined capital investment of $40 million in structures and equipment.

“These are long-term plays that these companies are making in Cedar Rapids, and that’s what Hilton is willing to do,” the mayor said. “That should send a positive message, not just to the business community, but to the citizenry of Cedar Rapids that our future is very exciting.”

Pomeranz said Hilton believes it can achieve an occupancy rate in the city’s Convention Complex hotel of 69 percent with an average room rate of $121 a night. The city’s projections are more conservative than that, the city manager said.

“In the end, we believe that the hotel will be profitable,” he said. The profit potential at the new convention center is “an unknown right,” he added. “But the hotel will help the convention center.”

In May, the City Council directed the city manager to apply to Hilton to secure the Doubletree by Hilton name for what had been the Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Hotel. The Crowne Plaza name dropped from the hotel when the city bought it earlier this year from its creditors and closed the hotel for a $21-million renovation. The city had also looked into securing the Sheraton and Radisson brands before assessing interest and seeking the Doubletree by Hilton name.

In April, the council agreed to hire a management team — hotel specialists Kinseth Hospitality Cos. of North Liberty and venue specialists VenuWorks of Ames — to manage the hotel, arena and the new convention center.

A month later, the council ended negotiations with the team after John Frew, the city’s project manager, told the council that contract negotiations between the city and the two Iowa firms had broken down. Frew said the city was looking for a “seamless, unified management” arrangement, which didn’t seem possible with the team of Kinseth and VenuWorks, he said.

The council told Frew to seek other management proposals.

Corbett on Friday also said he will ask City Council member Kris Gulick, chairman of the council’s Finance and Administrative Services Committee, to study the city’s current management setup for its three existing entertainment venues, the U.S. Cellular Center arena, the Paramount Theatre and the Ice Arena.

VenuWorks now manages the three, though Corbett has talked in the past about having the principal tenants of the theater and Ice Arena — Orchestra Iowa and the RoughRiders hockey team, respectively — manage those venues.

Corbett also wants Gulick’s committee to weigh in on the need for the city to have a Five Seasons Facilities Commission of citizen appointees to oversee facilities management. Corbett is not filling two openings on the commission for now, until he sees what Gulick’s committee and the full council decide, he said.